“It Is What It Is”: Toto Wolff Was Unaffected by Lewis Hamilton’s Loss Before FIA Turned the Tables

Toto Wolff Has No Sympathy as Lewis Hamilton Loses Belgian GP Despite Heavylifting for Mercedes

The drama does not seem to end in the 2024 season as George Russell has seen his outstanding victory in Spa slip away from his hands due to his car being underweight. The FIA announced this verdict minutes ago. This means that Lewis Hamilton will inherit the Belgian GP win, while Russell will not score any points. Since Hamilton had finished second before the FIA delivered a verdict in his favor, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was asked for his thoughts on the same. However, the Austrian did not seem affected about which of his drivers won the race.

The comments mentioned by Wolff below came in immediately after the race when the FIA had taken no action against Russell.

“He [Lewis Hamilton] did a great job, and it’s unfortunate, but it is what it is,” Wolff remarked after the race, speaking to Ariana Bravo for F1TV.

As for Hamilton, before inheriting the win, he was visibly dejected with a P2 finish. He mentioned during the cooldown room chatter that Mercedes missed the mark with the strategy for him. The #44 driver reported before both of his pit stops that the tires felt good, but the team boxed him regardless.

Russell, on the other hand, was the first to pit from the leading group on lap 10. As per Pirelli’s predicted strategy graph, he would have had to pit around lap 25 or 30 for a second set of hard tires. However, the #63 driver took his hard tires to the end. Unfortunately, since his car ended up being underweight, he failed to win the race.

While Hamilton was fortunate to see his teammate disqualified, he also did all the hard work upfront by overtaking Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc in the opening laps to be in a position to win the race. And with his teammate getting disqualified, he registered his 105th F1 win.

Wolff thinks Hamilton overshot the team’s expectations

Speaking after the race, Wolff explained how the team was not expecting to win the race at Spa-Francorchamps. After a disappointing Free Practice on Friday, the Austrian wasn’t expecting anything more than a podium from Hamilton.

“We were expecting at best a podium – but the car worked well on one-stop and two-stops,” said Wolff. He also explained how the team figured out that the poor form on Friday was because of a mechanical issue instead of the floor lacking performance.

The Mercedes boss said he would have liked to see two winners at Spa because both his drivers showed very good pace. “I’d like to have two winners today,” Wolff added while speaking to Sky Sports F1.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
Belgian GP George Russell Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Toto Wolff

About the author

Veerendra Vikram Singh

Veerendra Singh is a senior Formula 1 journalist at TheSportsRush, with a passion for the sport that goes back to 2008. His extensive coverage and deep understanding of the sport are evident in the more than 900 articles he has written so far on the sport and its famous personalities like Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff, Charles Leclerc and more... When he's not at his work desk, Veerendra likes to spend time with his two feline friends and watch races from the Formula 1 and MotoGP archive. He is always up for a conversation about motorsport so you can hit him up anytime on his social media handles for a quick word.

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